1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture of parts and, more particularly, to the formation of a single part that includes a seamless interface between components made of different types of materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacture of devices, e.g., cellular phones or digital media devices, housings are typically assembled. A housing, which may form an exterior surface of a device, is often formed by assembling multiple parts together. To ensure that a housing may be assembled from multiple parts that are effectively intended to fit together, the design of the overall housing may be such that gaps and/or offsets between external surfaces of the parts exist. By way of example, an overall housing may be designed such that when the overall housing is assembled, there is a gap and/or an offset between an exterior surface of a first part and an exterior surface of a second part, although the first part is coupled to the second part.
Gaps and/or offsets effectively ensure that parts of an assembly may fit together by accommodating slight deviations in the manufacture of the parts. In other words, because the machining of or formation of parts that are to be assembled together into an overall housing may result in slight differences in the dimensions of the parts, to substantially ensure that the parts will fit together despite the slight differences, the housing may be designed such that an external surface formed by the parts includes a space.
Generally, housings may be formed from different materials. For instance, a housing may include a metal bezel that is assembled to a plastic piece. Alternatively, a housing may include a glass piece that is assembled to a plastic piece. The existence of gaps and/or offsets in the design of the housing allows the parts of different materials to be interfaced together such that slight variations in tolerances, and/or imperfections, do not substantially affect the external surface of the housing that is formed from the parts.
For some devices, the existence of gaps and/or offsets in an external surface may be undesirable. By way of example, if the aesthetic quality of, or the cosmetic appearance of, the device is critical, the existence of gaps and/or offsets in the external surface of the device may be considered to be unattractive and, hence, unacceptable.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and an apparatus that allows gaps and/or offsets designed to accommodate imperfections and/or variations in tolerances to be substantially eliminated from an external surface of a housing.